The Greatest Prank
by Rustred
Summary: It's almost the end of Lily and James's seventh year, and it's time for the final prank.


It was starting to get hot at Hogwarts again, as exams were drawing to a close. The Gryffindor common room was about half full, owing to the nice day outside. A knot of first years skirted nervously around the group of chairs and couches that held some of the school's most popular seventh years, including the Head Boy and Head Girl. Overall, it was an imposing collection.

For a large part of their time at school, Lily and James had been famous for their ear-splitting, hair-raising, terrible fights. People had learned quickly to get out of their way when voices were raised and wands were drawn, especially after a second year had been hit with a particular nasty curse from Lily. Lily was horrified after, but in the moment, she had been so mad at James that she hadn't even noticed.

Therefore, it was no stretch of the imagination to envision the horror that greeted the Hogwarts population when they learned that their Head Boy and Girl were going to be the dueling pair themselves. A group of fourth year Hufflepuffs had even written home in fright, telling their parents that it wouldn't be long before the school was crumbling around their ears.

In the Hufflepuffs defense, September was undoubtedly rough. The Gryffindor tower was rocked at least twice when arguments broke out. However, by the time October rolled around, Lily and James were still bickering, but no longer were they at war with each other. By Christmas, you could even call them friends. Now, in June, they were quite close. Of course, they still argued, but it was playful most of the time and kept them from really blowing up at each other.

On this particular day, Lily and James were relaxing on the couch, after just finishing their N.E.W.T.S. Three other seventh years rounded out the group; Matthew Jacobs, Victoria Russell, and Albert Stephens. None of them were particularly friends of Lily and James, but as the rest of James's gang was mysteriously missing, and Lily's best friend had disappear to go snog her boyfriend, the two Head's were finding themselves rather content to just sit with these friends and reminisce about old times.

"I remember this one time where you," Lily said pointing her figure at James, "would not leave me alone to study for my Potions test coming up. You kept draping yourself over my notes with a rose in your mouth." Everyone laughed at this.

"Yeah, well, all I got from that were a bunch of cuts on my tongue and one of your nasty Jelly-Leg curses." James replied making a face at Lily.

"I am still excellent at that Jelly-Leg curse, if you would like to see." Lily said, a playful and evil glint in her emerald eyes, as she drew her wand.

"No, thank you, I've learned my lesson." James held up his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"You've learned a lot of things." Lily said, thoughtfully.

There was a ponderous moment of silence, before Matthew broke in to say, "Tell us about the first month of this year. I mean, we all know you guys fought," the other nodded and chuckled, "but no one actually knows that many details."

"Well," James said, "the very last time we had a huge fight we both ended up in the hospital wing." He looked around to see the other three seventh years clearly waiting for the rest of the story. "We had been arguing about some policy or something that I wanted to change-"

"You wanted to try and change the curfew to four in the morning." Lily supplied.

"Oh, yeah. I still think that might be a worthwhile idea." Lily gave him a look and James smiled sheepishly. "Well, Lily disagreed, and we started fighting, which lead to curses being thrown and two of them collided and exploded, which knocked us both out. Sirius had to break through the door and levitate us out."

"We spent two or three days in the hospital wing, recovering," Lily added, "and that was when we decided that we could probably do a much better job if we listened to each other and stopped trying to kill each other."

"Plus, we were pretty sure that it wouldn't be long before we succeeded." James said with a laugh.

"James!" A voice called from the portrait hole. Most of the students in common room turned to see who it was, as three boys hurried across the common room to James.

"Hey guys." Lily said, cheerily waving to Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"Hi Lily," They chorused back, before turning back to James.

"It's almost dinner time." Sirius said with a significant look.

James immediately stood up. After a quick whispered conversion with Sirius, he turned and said, "I'll see you at dinner, Lily. Nice talking to you, guys." Then, the four Marauders turned and left in a hurry, whispering rapidly.

Lily watched them go, fairly sure that they were up to something that wasn't exactly with in the school rules. However, she really didn't care. After all, in less than two weeks, school would be done. Besides, the boys hadn't done anything in at least a month, and she was sure this one was going to be a prank to remember.

---

Lily arrived at dinner about fifteen minutes late. She had gotten caught up in a book she had started after James had left and it had take her sometime to realize the common room had emptied. She slid into an empty seat across from James and between Remus and Peter.

"Perfect timing, my Lily-flower." Sirius proclaimed from his spot beside James.

"For what?" Lily asked, giving Sirius a look that told him he hadn't gotten away with calling her that ridiculous nickname.

Remus smirked and said, "For one of the greatest-"

"Probably the greatest!" Peter interrupted.

"Definitely the greatest!" added James.

"Without a doubt." Sirius agreed.

"For the greatest Marauder prank to date, for wh-"

"Probably the forever!" Sirius interrupted.

"Definitely the forever!" added Peter.

"Without a doubt." James agreed.

"Let me finish, you guys! For which we have spent month preparing," here he lowered his voice to a whisper, and the five Gryffindors stood to be able to lean in closer, "and it all takes effect in about fifteen seconds." He looked around briefly. Lily looked too, wondering what it could be.

Sirius was consulting his watch. Very softly, he began counting. "10… 9… 8…" James joined him, "7… 6…" By now, all four were counting quietly, watching the hands of Sirius's watch. "5…4…3…2…1…0!"

Nothing appeared to happen. Lily felt certain that something had gone wrong. She was expecting an explosion or something, or at the very least fireworks. She turned her attention back to the Marauders to consol them on the disappointing turn out of their final prank, and then scold them for getting her all excited over a big fat nothing. However, the look on all four boys' faces was positively maniacal.

Slowly, Lily became aware of a change going on around her. All of the sixth and seventh year students suddenly seemed a lot more… interested in the other sixth and seventh years. Within minutes many of the students were passionately snogging. Many of the younger students were fleeing. In some cases, Lily could even see shirts flying off.

Not understanding why the professors weren't doing something about this, Lily looked up to the professors' table and immediately regretted it. A number of her professors were in rather compromising positions and it was something she had never wanted to see.

By now, it seemed as if the only ones left in the Great Hall were the sixth and seventh years, a smattering of fifth years, and the professors. All of them were engaged in some sort of romantic activity with one or more other people. Well, Lily thought, nearly all of them. She met James's eyes across the table from where he had been watching her reaction.

"What is…" She started unsure of the words.

"It's an adaptation of a potion called the Draught of Desire. We went to the kitchens and put it in the pumpkin juice"

"James!" Lily knew the potion well enough. "How irresponsible! The younger students!" She still couldn't find words.

"We spent months adapting it. Anyone under sixteen feels the undeniable… desire to go to their common room." James explained

"Oh… I- Uh-" In that second, Lily made a decision. "Is there any in yours?" James shook his head. "And," Lily swallowed hard, "mine?" James shook his head again. "Good. Then you'll know everything I am doing is because I want to." Quickly, she stepped up onto the table and sat herself down in front of him, a leg on either side of his still form. Lily took his face in her hand, looked into his hazel eyes, and with the all the passion and love that had been building for at least a year, kissed James.

"Definitely the greatest.", whisper James.

"Without a doubt." Lily agreed.


End file.
